Gakaara wa Wanjaũ

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Gakaara wa Wanjaũ was born in Nyeri District in 1921 and attended a local primary school in pre-independent Kenya. He never finished high school and never got college education.[1] He, nevertheless, started a career as a writer which, would be long and tortuous, and one that would be hampered severally throughout his life. During the state of emergency for example, together with other freedom fighters, who had been labelled "hard core," he spent years in detention. It was at this time, observes historian Caroline Elkins, that he started documenting events in his life, albeit discreetly.[2] Later, his books after having been banned and causing him to be arrested, were passed to be included as part of various syllabi for Gĩkũyu language instruction in the lower classes(grades) of primary school--mostly standard one, two, and three. These books mainly included children's short stories--often a collection of folk-lore. Teachers often used the popular introductory texts by writer Fred Kago titled "Wĩrute Gũthoma (Foundations of Learning)" for the basics and supplemented them with Gakaara's stories.

He died on March 30, 2001 aged 80. He was buried in Karatina [3].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pugliese, Cristiana (1995). Author, Publisher and Gĩkũyũ Nationalist: The Life and Writings of Gakaara wa Wanjaũ, 270. ISBN 3-92-751035-1. 
  2. ^ Elkins, Caroline (2006). Imperial Reckoning: The untold story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya. Macmillan, 475. ISBN 0-80-508001-5. 
  3. ^ Free Media Foundation: [A Tribute to Gakaara wa Wanjau: A Literary and Cultural Icon Passes On...]